hi,
i dont mind the crop, its quite interesting and the grouping of figures is fine too together with the rock left side holding it all together.
the issues i would have would be the exposure which is probably outside the latitude of the cameras sensor,
generally your camera sensor would have around 5 stops of latitude and you are really stretching that 5 stops here with this very bright pale sky so in a way you had 2 options,
you could have used grad filters to balance things out a little better and retain detail in the sky or you had have shifted your exposure slightly in favour of underexposure to retain sky colour traded off against a darker beach. as things stand the overall exposure is a little in favour of the overexposed so the latter of the two suggestions may well have been acceptable as a compromise.
other wise a nice record of a day on the beach.
best regards,
Phil

hi,
i dont mind the crop, its quite interesting and the grouping of figures is fine too together with the rock left side holding it all together.
the issues i would have would be the exposure which is probably outside the latitude of the cameras sensor,

generally your camera sensor would have around 5 stops of latitude and you are really stretching that 5 stops here with this very bright pale sky so in a way you had 2 options,

you could have used grad filters to balance things out a little better and retain detail in the sky or you had have shifted your exposure slightly in favour of underexposure to retain sky colour traded off against a darker beach. as things stand the overall exposure is a little in favour of the overexposed so the latter of the two suggestions may well have been acceptable as a compromise.

Not a bad effort, but the problem is exposure and contrast. Software will deal with this to some extent but the sky would require rather more work. Use the histogram to darken the image a little and pull in the highlight and shadow sliders as required.
Then, in curves, lift the contrast to give the image some punch.
paul

Not a bad effort, but the problem is exposure and contrast. Software will deal with this to some extent but the sky would require rather more work. Use the histogram to darken the image a little and pull in the highlight and shadow sliders as required.
Then, in curves, lift the contrast to give the image some punch.

Hello, Anthony, and welcome to EPZ. I like the way you have included the patterns in the sand, and the perspective on the figures. The overexposure, as has been said, is the main problem, and the burnt-out sky. It's obviously a sunny day and I've probably made it look less like that in my modification, in an attempt to bring down the exposure and bring out more detail. I cropped the left side so that the eye starts with the girl with the net and moves to the right, along the group of people into the distance. I darkened the image, deepened shadows, decreased highlights, increased saturation, coloured the sky and darkened the headland.
Pamela.

Hello, Anthony, and welcome to EPZ. I like the way you have included the patterns in the sand, and the perspective on the figures. The overexposure, as has been said, is the main problem, and the burnt-out sky. It's obviously a sunny day and I've probably made it look less like that in my modification, in an attempt to bring down the exposure and bring out more detail. I cropped the left side so that the eye starts with the girl with the net and moves to the right, along the group of people into the distance. I darkened the image, deepened shadows, decreased highlights, increased saturation, coloured the sky and darkened the headland.
Pamela.

Thanks all for your comments I have found them very helpful.
The origional photo i uploaded had been 'lightened' in Photoshop, so i went back to the origional and tried to increase the detail in the sky,, I also liked Pamela's crop, so i have copied that.the .
My PS skills are pretty bad, so my best bet is to get the exposure right in the first place.
Thanks again
Ant

Thanks all for your comments I have found them very helpful.
The origional photo i uploaded had been 'lightened' in Photoshop, so i went back to the origional and tried to increase the detail in the sky,, I also liked Pamela's crop, so i have copied that.the .
My PS skills are pretty bad, so my best bet is to get the exposure right in the first place.